ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Album Notes

Przemek Draheim, "Glosem Bluesa", "Z Bluesem na Ty" www.blues.pl/draheim, Poland, 12 Dec 2004:
-"Black River Bluesman don't play no pretty music. Their blues are raw and powerful, played straight from the heart. Black River Bluesman brought the house down with their performance at Torun Blues Meeting this November (2004) and people went crazy. This is the blues played the way I like."

Magazine Twoj Blues, Poland, nr 19/2004:
-"Musicians from Finland deserved the special attention. Nobody expected that
from such cold country would come so fiery formation as Black River Bluesman.
This quartet attacked Torun's audience with the dose of blues mixed mainly with Hooker's boogie and elements of postpunk sounds. Plus good vocal of Jukka Juhola. All resembled not-well-known sound straight from American label Fat Possum."

The story of Black River Bluesman and the Cockroach Combo:
We are all countrymen born in the 50´s and live out in the woods of Southern Finland in a tiny village called Mustio - Black River in English, except Kid, who used to live in a close-by county called Kisko.
Harry and Risto have played dance-hall music for almost 30 years (it works- RL Burnside said: "The Blues ain´t nothing but dance music.") Me and my cousin Kid have been blues enthusiasts since the early 70´s.
September 2002 we all got together and decided that these new songs represent kind of an original style of blues&roots and decided to rehearse them. The CD was recorded already next December - live in three hours, on a one-take-basis, with everything left the way once played. We wanted it to sound authentic, like recorded spontantiously at a street-corner.
Made and marketed without economical resources or personal contacts, this self release CD has got publicity a lot more than we expected. It has been played on the radio by some 50 stations in more than 15 countries like Canada, USA, France, Danmark, Australia... with high rankings in playlists. There has been positive reviews and articles in Finnish and international newspapers and magazines. Our CD was voted the second best blues record of the year 2003 by listeners of the national Finnish blues program. Among other gigs, we have played at the legendary Rawa Blues Festival and Torun Blues Meeting in Poland as well as in Germany and the Czech Republic. We recently received an initiative to play gigs in the USA and are now planning a tour there, as well as in the UK.
Our new cd "Ants in my Kitchen" has now been published (June 2005). Another, yet rougher, non-trickery live recording and analogical mixing by Esa Santonen. Because of the success on our gigs we believe that the new songs do have potential .
Samples from our CD and radio shows can be heard at our web-address: www.bluesman.fi

(translation:) We have earlier introduced this Finnish blues band´s previous CD in the issue no 63 of this magazine. The new CD as well is a live recording. …We can hear simple, rough and vivid sounds, like made in a garage. Listening to tracks 1 and 5 they remind us of Junior Kimborough and makes us think that they are like a blues band from Fat Possum . The vocals have strong character like the vocals of Jim Morrison of Doors . They seem to appeal to a rock fan as well as to a blues fan.

...The album is certainly raw! Whoever said that a blues album has to be slick, that all blues must be a 12 bar shuffle, that the recording has to be clean, hasn't heard this album! It is alive, electric, with no convention left unchallenged. The first time you listen to it, you can tell it is a "live" album, in fact you wonder if the demo tapes were submitted to the record label by mistake! Then more listening brings out the concepts more and you start to appreciate what the band were looking to achieve. This album is challenging, different and is as off the wall as it gets but is certainly one worth a few listens.

this is really raw & rollin' & rockin'. reminds me of Wilko Johnson/ DR. Feelgood and an english band called Motor Boys Motor. Finlands answer to Junior Kimbrough and R.L.Burnside. Really worth a listen!

Here is a more correct rendering of the Concerto Magazine review in German:

The energetic Hill Country sound of a Cedell Davis, when compared with Black River Bluesman, comes over like mass-produced mainstream! Juhola's Blues singing is raw, rough, and totally authentic. The man plays what he feels and without bowing to conventions. He does not deny his electric roots -- quite to the contrary. Juhola's Blues scream, letting the plaintive emotions and distilled rhythms flow unhindered and without compromise!

here is a translation thats kind of literal of the first review: The energetic Hill Country sound of a Cedell Davis appears against the Black River Bluesman like measure-compatible Mainstream! Juholas Zusang to the Blues is bluntly, distorted and absolutely erlich. The man plays what he feels and this without Zugest?nisse at conventions. The electrical roots are not negated, completely in the opposite. Juholas Blues walk, l?t the complaining emotions and distilled rhythms unhindered flow... Compromise lot!